No. 10 Women's Basketball uses a 33-point fourth quarter to rally for 68-58 victory over John Carroll

By Tim Glon

ADA — No. 10 Ohio Northern used a 33-point fourth quarter to rally past John Carroll 68-58 in an Ohio Athletic Conference women's basketball game as part of Senior Day on Saturday at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 20-3 overall and stay on top of the Ohio Athletic Conference with an 14-2 record, while the Blue Streaks fall to 11-12, 6-9.

Senior Kasey Knippen (Ottoville) led Ohio Northern with 19 points. Junior Kristen Luersman (Fort Jennings) had her sixth career double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds and senior Brynn Serbin (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) had six points and 13 rebounds for ONU.

Ava Ryncarz led JCU with 19 points.

John Carroll led 43-35 after three quarters, but Ohio Northern shot a blistering 76 percent in the fourth quarter (10-of-13) to rally.

Northern raced to a 13-2 lead in the first 6:11 of the game, but the Blue Streaks would regroup and pull out to a 30-26 lead at intermission.

The JCU lead grew to 41-32 midway through the third quarter and was 43-35 heading into the final 10 minutes.

Knippen nailed a pair of three-pointers sandwiched around a basket inside by Luersman, as ONU drew within 46-43 just 1:44 into the fourth quarter.

A Knippen basket made it 46-45 and a Luersman basket gave ONU its first lead since the first quarter at 47-46 with 6:51 left in the game.

Luersman scored again with 6:14 to go to make it 49-48 and sophomore Layla Dials (Williard) drilled a three-pointer with 5:46 left to put ONU up 52-48.

Serbin got a layup to cap a 26-7 run and extend Northern's lead to 58-48 with 3:40 remaining.

Ohio Northern made 22-of-49 field goals for 44.9 percent and was 5-of-15 from three-point range for 33.3 percent, while John Carroll made 20-of-65 field goals for 30.8 percent and was 8-of-24 from beyond the arc for 33.3.

ONU was 19-of-23 from the free-throw line for 82.6, and JCU was 10-of-12 for 83.3 percent.

Northern out-rebounded John Carrol by a 45-29 margin.

Ohio Northern leads the OAC regular season standings by one game over Baldwin Wallace and can clinch a share of the title and the top seed in the OAC Tournament with a victory in either of its final two games - at Heidelberg on Wednesday or at Muskingum on Saturday.